South Korea Announces $8 Million Aid Package for North

But Mr. Moon’s government has also feared that South Korea’s conservative opposition would accuse it of coddling the North if it provided a larger aid package, especially with North Korea having resumed short-range missile tests. South Korean conservatives argue that the North has squandered resources on its nuclear arms program that it should have used to help its people.

“This is a time to stop aid if there is any going to the North, not to provide it,” Jun Hee-kyung, a spokeswoman for the conservative Korea Liberty Party, said on Friday after the aid package was announced. She accused Mr. Moon of “irresponsible appeasement.”

The United Nations has imposed a series of tough sanctions on the North over its nuclear program since 2016, banning the export of coal, iron ore and other key North Korean products, as well as sharply cutting oil imports. Those sanctions have deprived the government of important sources of income, as well as undercutting its ability to import food.

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has been hoping to win relief from sanctions in return for partial dismantlement of his country’s nuclear weapons facilities. Mr. Trump refused such an offer in February at his second meeting with Mr. Kim, in Vietnam, demanding that the North relinquish all its nuclear weapons. The talks have since been stymied.

North Korea’s resumption of short-range missile tests last week has been widely seen as a warning that it may return to more ambitious missile launches unless sanctions are eased. Mr. Kim has given Washington until the end of the year to show more flexibility, indicating that his country will otherwise seek an alternative to diplomacy.

The United Nations sanctions do not prohibit humanitarian aid to the North. But as its nuclear and missile work has escalated in recent years, international relief agencies have been unable to collect substantial donations for chronically malnourished children and nursing mothers in the North.

Mr. Moon’s conservative predecessors had sharply curtailed humanitarian aid in response to the North’s nuclear and missile tests. But Mr. Moon, a political liberal, has backed humanitarian aid along with other forms of engagement with the North since taking office in May 2017. His government gave the North $1 million worth of pesticides last year, the South’s first direct governmental aid to the country since 2010.

Mr. Moon’s government also said on Friday that it would let South Korean businesspeople visit the industrial complex in Kaesong, a North Korean border town, that was jointly operated by the Koreas until Mr. Moon’s immediate predecessor shut it down in 2016. The executives want to assess the condition of their factories at the complex, which was run with North Korean labor.